Coincidental

Now that I am in my final weeks at the Firm, it is only natural that I am in a bit of a retrospective mood. One of the things I will forever remain grateful for is the opportunity to get to visit countries off the tourist track and meet interesting people there, some of which have become friends. This past weekend, I was in Sofia with Mademoiselle (who could understand why I love the city). My last business trip in my previous job role took me there pretty much exactly a year ago and I missed it. I miss frequent travels to CEE and CIS overall. Be that as it may, we were having lunch on Sunday in a new restaurant next to our hotel, catching up with a Bulgarian colleague of mine, who is currently on maternity leave. Our table was right next to the door and suddenly a party of 3 (a man and 2 women) come in with a pram. Turns out I know the guy pushing the pram- a former Lithuanian (!) business partner of mine, who essentially was part of the same former life that took me to Sofia. He was just as surprised to see me and it was a crazy coincidence (it turned out he was in town for a conference and had taken his wife and baby plus a friend for the weekend), but then again it completely made sense as my business trips to Vilnius happened during that period of time when I would come to Sofia regularly and both the friend I met for lunch and that Lithuanian university professor were reminders of my not-so-distant past.